The Unknown Child and the Dragons
YYH/IY crossover with a few X-1999 characters
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Inu Yasha or X. I do not own the children of the Inu Yasha characters either. They belong to my friends. I own the Yu Yu Hakusho and X-1999 characters' children.
Chapter 3
Sakura cried out as another wave of pain swept over her body. She twisted and turned, struggling to free herself from the chains around her wrists and ankles. She was already extremely weak from blood loss, but she kept fighting. She couldn't give up. She wouldn't give up. But she might not be able to fight for much longer. As she slipped in and out of consciousness, she could hear faint voices coming from the shadows surrounding her. She couldn't make out everything they were saying but she did pick up pieces of it:
"Stop it!"
"You're killing her!"
"How could you do that to a child?"
"Monster!"
"You'll pay for this!"
"Sakura-chan!"
Then the voices suddenly disappeared. Sakura could hear nothing, surrounded by complete silence. She began to panic, wondering where the voices were. Then a new voice spoke. This voice did not come from the shadows, but from what seemed like the depths of her own soul:
"It is time to make them pay."
Sakura woke up screaming. It had been that horrible dream again. Sweat covered her small frame and tears ran freely down her face. Grasping for air, Sakura hug her knees and waited for her heart to stop bounding. Her body shook uncontrollably as images from the dream replayed over in her mind. This caused her to hug her knees even tighter in an attempt to block out the memories. Still a mess from the dream, Sakura jumped when she felt two arms wrap around her. The owner of the arms turned out to be Ryu, who must've heard her screaming moments before. He was very much aware of Sakura recurring nightmare, having lived with her at Genkai's temple for the past few years.
Sakura sighed and rested her head on Ryu's chest, comforted by the young fire demon's warmth. Her breathing slowly returned to normal and her body relaxed. Ryu always had that effect on her. Within 10 minutes Sakura was asleep again. Ryu, on the other hand, was not. He never could get back to sleep, not after hearing Sakura's blood-curdling screams. He knew what caused her to have those horrible nightmares. No, it wasn't a nightmare. It was a memory, which she has to keep reliving. It was a memory Ryu wished he could erase from her mind completely. But he knew he couldn't do such a thing because his Jagan had no effect on her mind. Sure he could read her thoughts and memories, but that was all. Her mind could not be controlled or altered as far as Ryu knew. So after, Ryu fell into a restless sleep.
Sakura awoke the next morning still in Ryu's arms. She blushed slightly as she looked into the face of the sleeping fire demon. Quietly, she slipped out of Ryu's embrace and made her way to her little kitchen for breakfast. Sakura had to hurry or she'd be late meeting Leiko-chan and the others. Sakura inhaled two pieces of toast, gulped down a glass of orange juice, got dressed, and was out the door in five minutes. She raced down to the meeting place, which was the front gate of their school.
A month had already passed since Sakura had met her friends and that month had passed without any incident. It looked like the Dark Knights had stopped their assault on Ningenkai. I hope they have... Sakura thought as she rounded the last corner and the front gate came into view. Leiko-chan, Kazuo-kun, Shina-chan, and Kanaye-sempai, along with two people Sakura had never seen before, were the only ones there, meaning she wasn't late for a change. Leiko and Shina smiled as Sakura stood bent over in front of them, trying to catch her breath.
"Hey, it's a first. You're actually on time," Leiko laughed, helping Sakura stand up straight.
"Leiko, stop being so rude!" Kazuo reprimanded her sister.
"Who's being rude? I'm telling the truth," Leiko retorted.
"It's ok, Kazuo-kun. I'm late for everything," Sakura laughed, turning her attention to the two strangers next to Kanaye. "Are they from you old school?"
"Oh, yeah," chimed in Shina, "This is Mana and Nano. Mana and Nano, this is Sakura-chan."
"Please to meet you," Mana said, as she bowed in greeting. Mana was the same age as Sakura, with long black hair done up in a braid hanging off her shoulder. She was about an inch shorter than Sakura at 5'1'' and her soft brown eyes glowed with a hidden intelligence. She had a laptop bag swung over her shoulder, which looked very cumbersome to Sakura. Who carries a laptop with them outside of school? thought Sakura. She then turned her attention to Nano. Nano was a lean boy about Kanaye's height at 5'9", with short messy black hair and a cheerful expression on his face. Smiling, he shook Sakura hand with a "Hi, nice to meet ya."
The small group sat on the curb, waiting for the rest of the gang to show up. Sakura finally discovered the reason for the laptop – it was for bashing Kanaye in the head. Shina and Leiko filled her in on how much of a perv Kanaye really was and his fondness for groping girls. Sakura was glad he had never tried do it to her. After several bashes to the head with Mana's laptop, Kanaye was out cold. Shina was commenting on her brother's stupidity when Touya arrived with two people Sakura had never met before. Leiko, on the other hand, was growling and flexing her fingers as if ready to fight.
"Touya, why the hell did you bring that idiot?" Leiko snarled, pointing the older boy standing behind him.
"Hn, if I knew you would be here, dog-girl, I wouldn't have come," commented the boy wryly. The strange boy was about 2 heads taller than Touya, with long red hair tied back in a ponytail. His amethyst eyes held vivid disgust for the younger girl standing in front of him.
"Man, Kaneda, do you have to start with her every time you see her?" piped in the other stranger, a girl with bright green eyes and sky blue hair in a high ponytail. She then proceeded to slap the rude Kaneda when Hina interrupted her by throwing a basketball, hitting Kaneda directly in the back of his head. Kaneda landed face first into the street, to the amusement of the people around him. Touya sighed, grabbing the older boy by his collar and pulling him to his feet.
"Nii-chan, you're such an embarrassment," Touya comment as Kaneda wiped the dust off his clothes.
"What'dya say you little shit?" Kaneda screamed at his younger brother.
"Kaneda! Watch your language," chastised the blue haired girl.
"Ah shut up Hikari. You're the one who dragged me here." The blue haired girl, Hikari, was fuming now and ready to kill the obnoxious red head. However, Touya intervened and prevented the two from hurting each other.
"If you two don't stop acting like 3 year olds, I'm gonna tell mom your 'little secret'" Touya whispered to the fighters. Both froze, staring at Touya in disbelief. The two looked at Touya, and then quieted down. Sakura stared in amazement at the control Touya had over the 2 older teens. She leaned over to Leiko and asked her what was going on. Leiko responded with:
"They're he's older brother and sister. The red head is Kaneda and a real pain in the ass. The blue haired one is Hikari. She's ok for a bubble head. They're the same age as Hina- sempai, though they go to a different school. I think I heard from Kaori-chan that they belong to some gang." Sakura stared at the twins, not seeing anything that would indicate they were gang members.
Kaori and Anzu arrived and the group was finally underway. The friends had decided that since no one had ever been to Tokyo Tower, save Kaori, they would go visit it. The day went by without incident, except for the bickering between Kaneda and Leiko. Near sunset, Sakura was standing on the top Observation Deck, looking over Tokyo as the sun turned the city a brilliant gold. She sighed at the beautiful site, wishing it could always be like this. However her thoughts were interrupted by a woman's scream from across the Observation Deck. More screams followed as the assailants made quick work, killing the innocent bystanders on the deck. Sakura stared in horror as the murderers turned out to be a squad of Dark Knights. Some were licking blood from their swords while others were devouring the recently deceased.
Sakura was too shocked to move. NO! Why? Why are they here? was the only thought running through her head. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she caught some movement. Hina and Hikari had just returned from the food court with arm loads of junk. Everything they were carrying fell to the ground and the 2 girls became frozen in fear. A Knight noticed the fresh prey, and made a move to put the teenagers on the already extensive menu. Raising its sword, the Knight charged at the frightened girls, intending to impale them both. Both girls were too gripped by fear to move and would have become the next course, had the Knight not exploded mere inches from them. Hina and Hikari came to their senses in time to see Sakura standing in front of them, a glowing hand extended in front of her. The other Knights quickly took notice of their bitter enemy, readying their swords for a battle. Sakura readied herself as well, charging her aura. A violent wind wiped through the deck, knocking Hina and Hikari to the floor. The winds grew more violent as the Knights began their charge. Most were held back by the violent gale, but a few managed to slip through Sakura's wind shield, intent on turning her into sis kabob. Soon she was surrounded, with little means of fighting back. Sakura was close to joining the dead on the floor, when two balls of light, one turquoise and one sapphire colored, connected with a number of Knights, turning them to dust.
Leiko and Kazuo appeared on either side of Sakura, each holding a rather large sword. There was no time for questions from any of the 3 friends because the Knights had regrouped and were making a bee line for the teens. Kazuo was the first to raise his sword, gathering the energy from his surroundings into the sword. When he swung down, the concentrated power was released, destroy a large portion of the Knights. Leiko was next, gathering the surrounding light into her sword and releasing it like her brother did, however the light was now polarized into a dark blast of destructive energy. Sakura was still using her violent gales to rip apart any Knight she could catch. She was very lucky to have the power of the dragons to rely on, 'cause they were gonna need it to completely exterminate the Knights.
Huddled in a corner, Hina and Hikari watched the battle in horror. Neither knew what was going on, but they understood enough to stay as far away as possible. However, they were still on the Knights' menu and one battered Knight had not forgotten about the delicious prey. Standing over the two frightened girls, it licked its lip in anticipation of the meal. The creature raised its sword high above its head, ready to finish its prey in one clean swing. The sword, however, would not budge. Looking up, Hina noticed that there was something attached to the sword which resembled a green whip covered in green thorns. Both girls followed the whip to its point of origin. They found that the whip was attached to a hand and that the hand was attached to... Touya? The youngest Minamino was indeed the owner of the green whip. In one motion, he removed the whip from the creature's sword and then wrapped it around the Knight's neck. Then he tugged the whip once and the monster's head was no longer attached to its body. Another Knight made a move to devour Touya, but was stopped by a katana through his gut, courtesy of Ryu who had appeared out of no where. The young fire demon surveyed the blue haired boy's whip commenting:
"Nice Rose Whip man."
"So this thing does have a name. Cool," replied Touya.
Ryu and Touya silently decided to double team the nearest Knights. Touya beheaded some with his Rose Whip while Ryu sliced the rest in half with his katana. Kaneda had finally made it to the scene with Anzu and Kaori close on his heels. As Kaneda tried to get his twin and Hina out of danger, Kaori and Anzu were covering him. Anzu summoned arrows made out of spirit energy into one hand and a bow in the other. Her Spirit Arrows hit their target every time, which was the silver skull on the Knight's breastplate. Kaori's weapons of choice were throwing stars made from her energy along with some weird slips of paper with weird scribes on them. The paper, when thrown, turned into golden birds and attacked the Knights head on. Shina and Kanaye finally made an appearance. The siblings stood between everyone and the Knights. Together, they removed the glove like covers on their right hands. A Wind Tunnel appeared in each of their hands, sucking in many of the Dark Knights. However, the negative energy of the Knights became to much and they both had to cover their Wind Tunnels again.
There seemed to be no end to the Knights. When one fell, two would take its place. The group of teens was now cornered, surrounded by creatures hungry for human and demon flesh alike. Sakura was franticly looking for something, anything to save her friends when she remembered the bus accident. Her aura was the key. It was the thing they feared the most and the one thing that could save them all. So Sakura took a big gamble by separating herself from the other. Summoning the powers of a wind dragon, Sakura jumped through one of the broken windows, ascending the remaining height of Tokyo Tower. Standing on the very tip of the Tower's top, she collected her aura into her hands. When the energy ball in her hand was large enough, Sakura jumped as high as she could into the air. Flipping around so she was looking down on the Tower, she released the gathered energy directly at the Tower. Tokyo Tower was flooded with a pale pink light that eliminated the Knights on contact, ashes and all. The group of fighters, along with the people standing below the tower, was along bathed in the pink light. Because they were temporally blinded by Sakura powerful aura, no noticed the odd array of dragons forming around the teenagers. Each dragon seemed to resemble the type of power each teen had. The dragons belonging to Hina, Kaneda, and Hikari appeared to be covered in chains, as if their powers were bound in some way. The chains were soon dissolved by the power of Sakura's aura. The other dragons absorbed the power shining down on them, growing bigger every second.
Sakura's power finally gave out and the light died out. Ryu and Leiko were the first to recover, heading straight for the window Sakura jumped through. Reaching it first, Ryu jumped to the top of the Observation Deck, just in time to see Sakura falling from the tip of the tower. With demonic speed, he intercepted Sakura mid fall and landed graceful with the unconscious girl safely in his arms. The rest of the group began to congregate on the deck's roof, looking for the source of the strange light. Within minutes the police were also on the roof, led by Hina's father Kazuma Kuwabara. Close behind the police with the Minamino siblings' mom Botan, Kaori's parents Subaru and Shizuru Sumergai, and Leiko and Kazuo's parents Inu-Yasha and Kagome Higurashi. Having all these people around made Ryu nervous, so he disappeared once Sakura was safe with Leiko's dad.
From the shadows of a nearby building, a group of 7 women watched the entire battle unfold.
"She has gotten stronger," said one woman with short blue-black hair.
"Indeed she has," commented another with long blond hair tied up with a red ribbon.
"She still has a long way to go," the one with long black hair pointed out.
"I wouldn't worry about that. She has a dream to fulfill," stated the woman with shoulder length aqua hair.
"Plus she has her little fire demon to watch over her," whispered the woman with long green hair in a half bun.
"I agree," remarked the one with brown hair done in a high ponytail.
"I can't wait to see was Chibi-chan does next," laughed the woman with very short blond hair.
Then the 7 strangers disappeared into the coming night.